Ruffled

The Event Stylists HEYLOOK are back with another DIY Project perfect for any occasion, really: a chandelier made from zip ties! These are ridiculously low-cost with a huge design payoff, and can be easily customized to fit the theme of your event. I’d love to see these as a giant art installation for a ceremony!

From HEYLOOK: To give a little industrial edge to this sweet valentine’s table setting, we made a zip tie chandelier inspired by Anthropologie displays.

For this project, you’ll need:
– Spraypaint in the colors of your choice
– Zip-ties (we used 200 small ties for this chandelier)
– Clippers and metal wire

Start by making a circle of metal wire. Depending on the thickness of your wire, you’ll need to make it a double or triple round. It needs to be relatively stable so it won’t bend too much when the weight of the zip-ties is added.

Then add some lines of wire to the inside of the circle to give your chandelier some layers. Depending on how full you want your chandelier to look, you will need to add more wire lines. Now, if you’re not going for the industrial edgy look, you can replace the wire circle frame with anything more sleek and pretty. You could use any ready-made wooden, plastic or metal hoops. Spraypaint them if you like. Use a large hoop for the outside and smaller ones for the inside. Then either tie them together with thin metal wiring or make the entire chandelier separately (you’ll end up with different sized, single line chandeliers that you can use either apart or hang them layered into one another).

Now make the zip-tie chains. Tie one loop (just until you hear the first click, so you get a very open loop), then tie the next one into it. Continue in this way. Now again, if you’re going for a symmetrical look, you can make all the outside chains one length and all the inside ones another one (the inside ones should be longer). We variated the chain lengths throughout the entire chandelier.

Tie the chains to the frame, then grab a bunch from one side, lay them out flat on a covered surface and spraypaint them in one color. You can spraypaint the chains entirely or go for a white to color gradient look as we did. Hang them up to dry (make sure the painted chains don’t touch the unpainted ones – just tape the unpainted ones together), then repeat with another color.

When you’re done, arrange the chains on the wire frame to get the look you want. Then add a dap of hot glue to each chain to fix it into position on the metal frame. We bent them wire frame a little bit at this point, because the perfect circle frame was well, too “perfect” for the look we wanted. Hang the chandelier with nylon string.

Now, imagine a whole venue full of these. Awesome! You can make rainbow colored chandeliers or keep them all in one color or different shades of one tone.